MIRA
2023 · 11m
Directed by Eva Louise Hall
Genres: animation, horror, thriller
Tones: dark, melancholic, surreal
A struggling accordionist busker's desire to be noticed attracts a mysterious, magnetic musician who draws her into a surreal nightmare of manipulation and entrapment.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A busker-into-predator thriller told through animation — the premise alone tells you Hall isn't interested in the expected vampire seduction or ghost story, and she's right to swerve it; the surreal manipulation frame lets her ask weirder questions about visibility and desire that convention would smother.
Hall's command of tonal architecture—the way she sustains melancholy against mounting dread through considered pacing and color work—positions this firmly in the lineage of animated psychological horror that takes its formal obligations seriously.
The decision to animate rather than shoot live-action is the hinge that saves this: it lets Hall stylize the musician's magnetism into something genuinely uncanny instead of relying on casting or performance alone, which on an 11-minute budget would have collapsed the whole premise.
Festivals
- Vancouver International Film Festival 2023
- SCAD Savannah Film Festival 2023, Best Horror Short - Spotlight Category, Best In Show - Spotlight Category
- Sony Future Filmmaker Awards 2024, Top 30 Finalist
- Fantastic Fest 2024, Best Animated Short
- Brooklyn Film Festival 2024, Award Winner
- Kansas City Underground Film Festival 2024, Award Winner
- Thomas Edison Film Festival 2024, Jury's Citation Award